Searching for Rakuen
by Sev's.Black.Pearl
Summary: An encounter with hunters persuade new members to join the pack, but will Dahmar, Kichiro, Tsukiko and her little pup Katsu help or hinder Kiba and the others in seacrhing for Rakuen. First cowritten story, please read and review!


**Disclaimer - A co-written fan fiction by Sev's Black Pearl and Moonlight's Wolf.**

'**We' do not own Wolf's Rain or any of the characters featured in this amazing show.**

**Sev's I only lay claim to the ones that have broken free from the dark prison of my mind and if I did own Wolf's Rain Darcia would rule the world and Tsume and Toboe would be his special slaves hehe! **

**Moonlight's Ur...yeahh...right, well, after that disturbing image of Darcia sitting on a beach with Tsume and Toboe dressed as French maids and serving him Pina coladas...urgh! **

**Anyways, what she meant was simple: We do not own WR...However we DO own, Dahmar, Kichiro, Tsukiko, and Katsu...so stay away! gr!**

**  
Sev's Ahhh no…now you've really screwed my image of my three favourite guys!**

**Searching for Rakuen **

**Chapter One - The More the Merrier?**

**(Moonlight's)**

**-Dahmar-  
**  
A sixteen year old girl walked in the forest; she was wearing a white jacket that left her shoulders and a small portion of her chest exposed, the three finger wide straps of a black tank top showing; her jacket was zipped up only until the line under her breasts, revealing her black tank-top; her long, raven hair was tied in a braid, resting against her chest; her blue jeans were broken in the right knee and a little whole was starting to form in front of her left tight, although, it was obvious this was just for the style; the jeans were long, and they covered half way through the small, black converse shoes she was wearing; two lose chains clung to her hips, making a little sound while they moved together, acting like decorative belts; she stopped and brushed the silken raven bangs away from her eyes.

'I know Tsume was only looking out for me' thought Toboe as he stubbornly trampled through the thorny undergrowth, ignoring the brambles clinging to his light green combat trousers and scratching his arms. 'But he didn't have to snap at me…'

Toboe dried the tears from his beautiful hazel eyes with the back of his hand, he was more angry than upset but he could let Tsume see him cry so that is why he had fled into the forest after the argument. It seemed pretty foolish now, for days Tsume had been even more cranky and standoffish than normal, so naturally Toboe had been worried about him. Despite Hige's warnings Toboe had persisted, badgering the older wolf with questions until Tsume had finally snapped at him. After wandering around on his own for about an hour Toboe had come to the conclusion that Tsume was just tired, hungry and too pig-headed to admit it. So he decided to search for a peace offering, a nice plump rabbit with which he hoped to soothe Tsume's temper and fill his empty stomach.

Toboe suddenly froze as he heard a tiny, clinking sound on the over side of the bushes, crouching down and inching forward so he could peer through the thorny branches Toboe stifled a gasped as he saw a young girl.  
Toboe watched mesmerized as the girl walked calmly, his huge hazel eyes shinning with inquisitiveness; she stopped briskly

Whos there? she asked, her voice was soft like velvet, barely audible (thats the usual volume she uses), and ice cold, Toboe froze, took a deep breath and walked out of the bushes

Who are you? her voice was still cold, but somehow less scared

My name is Toboe said the hazel eyed boy with a smile And yours?

Dahmar answered the sapphire eyed girl calmly

Youre a wolf, arent you? asked Toboe, looking at her with curiosity; in the place where the girl had been was a small she-wolf, her fur was the colour of sand, her sapphire eyes surrounded by a dark-beige-almost-brown patch of fur in the shape of a mask, there was a two-inches thick ring of pure white fur around her right paw, she was like and inch shorter than him; he changed to a small, slender wolf. His eyes reminded a beautiful hazel while his fur was more reddish in shade than his long hair had been as a young teenage boy. Once Toboe had shifted into a wolf they started walking through the forest.

They passed near a small stream, and Dahmar leaned down to drink; Toboe saw three thin silver chains around her neck, two of which were holding two little shiny triangles (guitar picks)

Hey, those are nice he said looking at them, Dahmar have him a little smile through her sapphire eyes

Thank you she said, her voice barely audible, as always

Did someone give them to you? he asked innocently

All my pack has them she answered Well one of them she showed him the triangle with the little crescent moon and her name on the other side This ones she showed him the one that had a strange symbol on its little triangle and the plain silver chain Were given to me by someone else she eyed his bracelets What about yours? she asked,

They were given to me by and old woman who took care of me his amber eyes filled with tears But she

Its OK, sweetie she smiled kindly I understand

Suddenly her ears twitched; she sniffed the air Do you travel alone, Toboe? she asked, Toboe shook his head, not fully understanding

Good we need to find your pack she said There are humans and dogs in this place I really don't like it

**(Sev's)**

**-Kichiro- **

"Damn you runt" cursed Hige as he slipped upon the dewy grass, lost his footing and plunged headfirst down a steep slope towards the edge of a deep ravine. Hige clawed at the stony, slippery earth sliding beneath his fingers as he desperately struggled to stop himself. He tumbled forward, then abruptly stopped knocking the wind from him and scraping his face on the slimy, rocky ground. Hige lay still for a moment too stunned and afraid to move, then as he slowly tried to raise himself out of the dirt he felt something tugging at his left ankle.

"Oh man" gasped Hige in disbelief as carefully twisting himself around to glance over his shoulder he could see his trainer caught in a tree root that was sticking out of the ground. "The guys are never going to believe this…" chuckled Hige still a little stunned by his amazing good fortunate, if he had shifted into his wolf form during his tumble he would have plummeted over the edge to his death for sure. Hige cautiously crawled backwards up the slope to release his trainer and then sat for a moment to collect his thoughts while he wildly pounding heart returned to it usual calm rhythm.

"Whoa…that was…huh?" Hige looked up as an unfamiliar howl rose from the trees above him, then Hige shuddered it was closely followed with the crazed barking of hunting dogs, there was a wolf in trouble and it was heading this way.

A large, black wolf pounded along a muddy forest track, he skidded upon a patch of autumnal leaves as he dashed through some thorny bushes and headed straight towards the ravine.  
'How the hell did you get yourself into this one Kichiro' thought the wolf as he heard the hounds baying for blood not far behind him. 'Come on Kichiro focus…you've got yourself out of much tighter spots than this…"

Kichiro knew he had left it far too late to shift into his human form now, the dogs chasing him were driven only by scent, his scent. The deadly combination of latent hunting instinct and inbred desire for the kill was everything to them now, the stupid creatures would attack him regardless of his form, it wasn't as if he could turn on the charm, try to talk his way out of this one. But Kichiro wasn't beaten yet, he still had a trick or two up his sleeve and was counting that he knew this forest a whole deal better than the hounding chasing him.

But then for Kichiro who lived upon his nerves and remarkable good luck, this was just another game, albeit an extremely dangerous one. Ever since he had been found as a young pup, abandoned and starving by a wandering trickster named Yoshi, who had named him Kichiro, Lucky Son, his life had become one long succession of gambles and deception. Kichiro relied and trusted no one, he had learnt to survive on his gut instinct, beguiling charm and a natural talent for calculating risks so usually he knew exactly when to cuts his loses and run.

Kichiro howled, goading the dogs hunting him and prayed that his extraordinary good luck hadn't finally decided to abandon him as he ran down the rocky slope straight for the edge of the ravine.

Hige scrambled to his feet as a black wolf with golden eyes burst from the bushes several yards from him and skidded down the slope. Hige cried out trying to warn the wolf only to watch in horror as the desperate wolf pursued by four hunting dogs made suicidal leap off the ravine. Hige stood with his mouth gaping open in disbelief as the stupid dogs so intent upon ripping their quarry to shreds followed the wolf over the edge, unable to stop themselves in time. Hige shuddered as the alarming, pitiful barks of surprised were swiftly followed by a terrified howling that briefly rose from the ravine only to fade away to nothing as the poor creatures plunged to their deaths into the icy river below.

"Oh man" said Hige as he squinted in the sunlight across the ravine hoping that perhaps that the black wolf might have managed to make the jump to the other side. "Bloody insane idea anyway…' sighed Hige as he turned sadly back to the slope and tried to decide in which direction he should search for the runt, now there were hunters in the forest the need to find Toboe was even greater.  
"Yeah…insane idea but it worked…" came a faint, slightly strained chuckle from somewhere below the grassy edge of the ravine.

"Huh?" cried Hige as he scrambled gingerly toward the sound of the voice. "I don't believe it"

"Believe it…but I could do with a little help here" requested Kichiro in a deep, silken voice.

Hige reached down a hand and gasped as it was grasped by the steely grip of a tanned, well manicured hand sporting a thick gold ring set with a fiery blue diamond.

"If you could just pull me, there's a tree root here I think I can use as a foot hold on…"

"Hang on man" cried Hige as he heave with all his strength then tumbled backwards onto his arse with a thud. Hige gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he desperately clung onto the gloved hand and digging his heels into the grass and pulled back again determined not to let this brave but clearly insane guy fall to his death.

Hige brown eyes widened in surprise as two dazzling flashes of blue and raven windswept hair appeared over the grassy edge of the ravine.

"Hi…" Kichiro greeted his rescuer with a glint of his prefect white teeth as he grabbed another tree root that was sticking out of the crumbling ravine edge and hauled himself up onto the grass. After crawling a safe distant from the edge Kichiro collapsed, rolling onto his back next to Hige. "Thanks…" he panted.

"That was awesome man" said Hige looking across at the stranger who was immaculately dressed in a nicely tailored black suit, white shirt and chunky, square toed boots.

"Yeah right…" replied Kichiro with a tinge of sarcasm as he slowly sat up. "I guess lady luck still favours me"

"But surely you could have taken on those dogs" questioned Hige with a frown, the guy was slender but athletically build and certainly looked like he could handle himself in a fight.

"Yeah…if they had forced my hand…but I'm not a fighter, too much of a mugs game if you ask me" said Kichiro with a shrug as he rose to his feet, staring across to the craggy cliff on the far side of the ravine. Kichiro gave a long low whistle through his teeth as he seemed to be calculating the distance. 'That got to be the biggest bluff you've ever pulled' Kichiro thought as he brushed back his long, floppy raven fringe.

Hige gazed up at the stranger with a mixture of stunned admiration and curiosity. His cool stance and confidence suddenly reminded Hige of Tsume, they appeared very similar in age too. The face now gazing down at him was extremely handsome, bronzed in complexion with a finely chiselled bone structure, but the stranger's most striking feature were his eyes. They were dazzling blue but oddly mismatched, the right one was the intense sapphire of a cloudless summer sky while the left one was a much darker hue, a stormy indigo. Hige could help but stare at them, the oddness drawing him to them, and then the intensity of the colours seemed to hold him in an almost hypnotic trance.

"The name is Kichiro" said Kichiro offering Hige a hand to help him to his feet.

"Oh yeah…" said Hige shaking himself out of his daze, his cheek suddenly burning with embarrassment. Hige quickly looked down at his feet as he mumbled "I'm Hige and I didn't mean to stare it just…"

"Hey no problem Hige" returned Kichiro with a deep chuckle, flashing Hige another of his glinting smiles. "I've got use to people staring…my eyes are pretty freaky, my curse I suppose…besides I owe you one kid, so stare away" .

If anyone else had called him a kid, Hige might have been offended, retorted back with a wisecrack but Kichiro's amazing if totally crazy stunt and strangely infectious charm had already won him over.

"I think we should split from this place before the hunters catch up… " suggested Kichiro calmly.

"Yeah right" agreed Hige as he wiped the dirt from the seat of his baggy grey trousers. "We must warn my friends, I just hope Tsume has had more luck in finding Toboe"

"We?" asked Kichiro arching his slender dark eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah…" said Hige. "Why not join us until the next town at least, I am sure the others won't mind, the more the merrier eh? And besides Kichiro you did just say you owed me one…"

"Yeah I did…" smiled Kichiro with a glint in his mismatched blue eyes making Hige wonder if that had been his intentions along.

**(Sev's)**

**Tsukiko and Katsu**

A tiny triumphant bark echoed through the forest clearing as a young slate grey pup darted through the carpet of golden brown leaves and successfully pounced upon a black beetle. The only other witness to this great hunt was a small, slender she wolf who lay curled beneath a willow tree. The she wolf's fur was the same dark shade as her son but each hair was tipped with silver as if reflecting the shimmering light of the full moon, earning her the name Tsukiko, Moonchild.

"Look mother" mumbled the pup as he bounded over to her carrying his prize in his mouth, his fluffy tail wagging excitedly. But as his teeth crack through the shinning black shell of the beetle he quickly spits it out snort of disgust. "That doesn't taste nice" he whines sounding a little crestfallen as he prods the dead beetle with a paw.

"I know sweetheart…" soothes Tsukiko as she rose to her feet, stretching the cold, stiffness of morning from her limps. "But you did well to catch that beetle Katsu, it was it was very fast…" she added encouragingly realising that he was almost ready to accompany her on a real hunt.

Tsukiko looked down at her little pup, she could feel her grey eyes misting with tears, if only her mate, Katsu had not been callously betrayed and murder by his own brother, Jiro and she hadn't been cruelly forced into the dreadful, heartrending choice of selecting just one pup from her litter of five before she fled for her life, things could have been so different.

There wasn't a day that had past since that terrible decision that Tsukiko didn't regret her cowardice, naivety and weakness, that she had failed to protect her pups. In hindsight she should have trusted her instincts, believed the whispers among the pack that the new alpha male had murdered Jiro to seize leadership and take her as his mate. Tsukiko knew the moment she had discovered she was pregnant with Katsu's pups she should have left the pack, but she had been too afraid to go it alone, too blinded by Jiro's feigned grief and soothing lies to realise the betrayal until it was too late. Tsukiko had lost far more than four sweet, innocent pups on that terrible, bloody night, she had lost the sight in her left eye, but perhaps even more importantly lost the trust in anyone but herself and little Katsu.

"But I'm hungry" complained Katsu as he sniffed at the beetle then sat back on his haunches and gazed up at his mother with large, imploring pale grey eyes, such a perfect miniature replica of his father, that it sometimes pained Tsukiko even to look at him.

"Well rabbits are far taster than beetles" said Tsukiko. "You stay , see if you can catch more beetles while I go hunting…"

"But mother can't I help you hunt the rabbits? " asked Katsu hopefully.

"Maybe tomorrow sweetheart, I promise not to leave you alone for long but if anything frightens you hide in the bushes and don't make a sound, okay?"

"Okay" replied Katsu with a small bark, he glanced around the clearing troubled by how dark and menacing the forest beyond the bushes had suddenly become.

"That's my brave boy" said Tsukiko as she briefly nuzzled against Katsu before disappearing into the shadowy forest behind him.

Katsu skidded to a halt upon the damp fallen leaves land let out a tiny frightened whimper as an unfamiliar lupine howl, followed by several, angry canine barks rang out somewhere in the distant forest. He looked up from the beetle smashed under his paws to see a pair of eyes staring back at him from the shadowy undergrowth.

"Mother" howled Katsu howled as he slowly edged backwards, adopting a low, submissive posture terrified as a stranger strode confidently into the clearing. The fierce looking large grey male regarded the pup with cold golden eyes, then shook his head with an annoyed frown.

"Are you alone kid?" he questioned in a deep, commanding voice, his ears suddenly twitching in the direction of the barking dogs. "This forest isn't safe for a pup on his own…"

"I…I am not alone" whimpered Katsu, his tearful amber eyes staring at the star shaped scar across the older wolf's muscular chest. "My mother is just…" Katsu stopped wrinkling his nose as he caught the familiar, comforting scent of his mother upon the breeze.

Tsukiko trotted into the clearing a scrawny brown rabbit dangling from her mouth but on seeing the large, grey male she gave a low, throaty growl and dropped her kill.

"JIRO!" snarled Tsukiko baring her teeth as she raced forward to protect Katsu. "Back off you bastard" she warned her good amber eye full of hatred. Tsukiko's silvery grey fur bristled as she tensed every muscle and steeled her nerve, this time she was prepared to fight to the death, she wasn't going to lose Katsu.

Katsu cowered behind his mother, peering out between her legs, trembling and confused, he thought that Jior lived far away in the mountains. Maybe he was too young and innocent to understand, admittedly the stranger frightened him, but Katsu just didn't believe that the grey wolf had wanted to harmed him.

"I don't know how you found us Jior, but I swear…"

"Hey lady…" snapped Tsume interrupting the silvery she wolf determined to stand his ground. "I think you've mistaken me for some other guy…"

Tsukiko growled as the large grey male took a step forward to reveal a handsome, tanned young man with short white hair, his tall, thin frame clad in tight black leather. His gut twisted with a sickening uncomfortable disgust as he noticed the ugly, savage scar running through her clouded blinded eye and down her cheek.

Tsukiko snarled angrily as she copied Tsume, shifting into her human form as well. Tsukiko rested her delicate hands, tipped with long silvery nails upon the curve of her hips. The good pale, grey eye still glared suspiciously at Tsume, while the clouded one and the terrible scar were both hidden behind a long fringe of silvery hair that swept across the left side of her face finishing just below her chin.

"Okay, so you're not Jiro…" admitted Tsukiko, her soft, melodious laced with ice and distrust. "So who are you? And what the hell do you thank you're doing scaring a young pup like that, does it make you feel big and nasty?"

"I'm Tsume…" replied Tsume coolly. "And if that is your pup then you should be more careful leaving him alone…" he continued folding his arms across his broad chest, he admired her boldly but couldn't deny that the she wolf's harsh words had slightly wounded him. "And I don't have to scare puppies to prove how big and nasty I am, lady".

"My name is _Tsukiko_" snapped Tsukiko crouching down next Katsu and throwing her pale arms protectively around the neck of the slate, grey pup. Katsu whined trembling against his mother as yowls of distressed suddenly rose into the air then stopped abruptly.

"Well _Tsukiko_…" continued Tsume as he glanced nervously over his shoulder, his worried thoughts suddenly returning to the missing Toboe. "You might just need big and nasty if you and your pup are going to survive this forest, sounds like the place is crawling with damn hunters…I've got friends that can…"

"Katsu and I are just fine on our own" returned Tsukiko scooping Katsu up and clutching him tightly to her chest. "We don't need your help…or your friends"

"Don't be such a stubborn bitch" growled Tsume angrily. "I've already wasted far too much time here when I should be searching for another foolish, lost pup…but hey if you want to get yourself capture or killed that's fine by me…but doesn't the kid deserve a chance?"

Tsukiko looked up at Tsume for a moment, Katsu was shaking with fear desperately trying to hide his face into the embroidered silk of her black tunic. Tsume, the large grey wolf that reminded her so much in appearance and attitude of the murderous, despised Jior was right, they did have a much better chance of escaping the hunters and she hated him for it.

"Okay then Tsume" replied Tsukiko reluctantly. "We'll join you and your friends until the threat of the hunters is gone, but stay away from us, I neither like or trust you…"

"Don't worry…" snorted Tsume. "The feeling is mutual…"

**Well there is chapter one...please review and let us know what you thought!**

**Sev's Right I'm off to leer at Darcia in his surf shorts and see if I can't swipe one of his cocktails...really Moonlight's I had thought that HOT noble would have drunk something just a tad more manly hehe!**


End file.
